'Saturday Night Live': Emma Stone, nerds and a French danceoff

Emma Stone took her first shot at hosting
"Saturday Night Live" this week. The "Easy A" star didn't hit on every sketch she was in, but we give her a solid B+ for the episode.

Here's a rundown of the highlights.

The Monologue

Audience-participation monologues are pretty reliable for laughs on "SNL," and Stone did well with hers. After explaining how she started pursuing her acting dream as a teenager (all of seven years ago), she noted that being in movies like "Superbad" and "Zombieland" attracts a certain kind of fan. Cue several nerded-up male cast members in the audience asking questions, with the answer to all of them being, "No, I won't make out with you." Also? Having
Bobby Moynihan and
Taran Killam play "Superbad" stars
Jonah Hill and
Michael Cera was a stroke of genius.

"Dream Home Extreme"/"Channel 9 News"

Nothing much to see here. In the first sketch, Stone plays the very underwhelmed winner of an HGTV contest and
Kristen Wiig doing her over-excited bit, this time with a Southern accent. The news sketch has leering reporter
Bill Hader uncovering all sorts of fake-scary teen trends and Stone not buying a single word of it.

Digital short

It started off as just a funny bit about Stone's high-school girl repeatedly slipping on a blob of grape jelly -- then it took a turn for the extremely weird when the grape jelly (as personified by
Andy Samberg) answered. Deeply weird, but in a good way.

"The View"

We didn't really laugh, but at least it took advantage of Stone's uncanny resemblance to
Lindsay Lohan by having her actually play LiLo. (Side note: Why is it that
Fred Armisen looks his most masculine when he's playing Joy Behar?)

"Les jeunes de Paris"

We're not entirely sure how this post-"Weekend Update" sketch made it on the air, as it was performed entirely in French and consisted mostly of a danceoff between Stone and Killam. But we're kind of glad it did make the cut -- it was goofy and loose and just sort of fun to watch.

Other bits

The show had two very funny filmed bits: the ads for Baby Spanx and Brett Favre's open-fly jeans ("it's always camera-ready"). "Weekend Update" was hit and miss as usual, but watching Hader (as city correspondent Stefon) try not to crack up while describing New York's hottest clubs was pretty great. And we expect to incorporate the phrase "stank basket" into regular conversation, thanks to the late-in-the-show Googie Rene sketch. Here's the Favre ad:

"SNL" has been up and down this season, but Stone was a pretty strong host, musical guest Kings of Leon sounded clear and strong in their two songs and the non-host material was pretty strong as well. We're chalking it up as one of the show's better efforts so far this season.